Many of you have asked to hear from people who have started a non-profit! This week, you'll be hearing from Lisa Shotts, Co-Founder of Gaining Ground Literacy.

Lisa has a heart for helping and a mind for data-driven results. Her considerable time spent in the classroom as a teacher -over twenty-five years – provided insight into the importance of having access to summer reading material.

As a former instructional reading coach for a local school, she could see the notable digression students experienced in reading skills over the summer break. She could also see that it boiled down to opportunity, or lack there-of, in economically disadvantaged communities. In these areas, also referred to as reading deserts, students simply didn’t have access to books or reading material.

That’s when she and her colleague Kirby Mackenzie realized that they had the power to make a simple change that would provide a lasting and life-long impact. That simple change of getting books into the hands of children in reading deserts has grown into a local non-profit known as Gaining Ground Literacy.